The snow and ice of winter thankfully seems a long way off, but we return to a chilly day in November, 1971.

The Morris Minors and Austin Minis are struggling up and down a slushy Bensham Road in Gateshead.

Over four decades later, the cafe on the left has become a general dealer’s store, the old shops and flats on the right have given way to modern housing, while St Cuthbert’s Church at the bottom remains.

Designed by eminent Tyneside architect John Dobson and built between 1846 and 1848, it occupies a prominent position on Bensham bank, with fine views down to the River Tyne - and beyond. Sadly, like a growing number of churches in our secular society, today it sits empty - the last service having taken place in 1991.

View down Bensham Bank now

Today, Bensham remains a busy suburb for families who work in and around Tyneside - and it houses a community of around 5,000 Orthodox Jews whose ancestors flocked to the area in the last quarter of the 19th century.

Then, during the Nazi era, Jewish businessmen - refugees from Hitler’s Germany - settled in Gateshead, making it the largest centre of orthodox Jewish scholarship outside the US and Israel.

Some of the shops on bustling Coatsworth Road used to - and presumably still do - sell the very best bagels!